Why Michigan's cannabis 'clean slate' law doesn't go far enough

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(Detroit Metro Times) In 2018, Michigan voters approved legalizing cannabis for adults age 21 and older, including possession, use, and cultivation. But what about all the people with previous criminal records for the very same activity now deemed legal?

In 2020, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed "clean slate" legislation that created a path for residents to clear many pot-related offenses from their criminal records. And earlier this month, the Michigan Attorney General created a website to help people apply to get the convictions expunged.

However, cannabis advocates like Barton Morris, an attorney at the Cannabis Legal Group, says the law doesn't go far enough.

While misdemeanors like possession and use are automatically expunged under the law beginning in 2023, now-legal activities that were previously considered felonies, like growing marijuana, isn't.

"Growing marijuana is now completely legal — you can grow 12 plants in your basement," he tells Metro Times. "Well, if you were doing that before 2018, you could be convicted of a felony. This law doesn't address that." .............(more)

https://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/why-michigans-cannabis-clean-slate-law-doesnt-go-far-enough/Content?oid=26915256#.YHxzypbwv6U.link

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1. There were no pot laws in Michigan back in 1972, for a couple weeks thanks to

John Sinclair.

When marijuana was legal in Michigan – 22 days in 1972
The Court released Sinclair from prison and, three months later, declared the state’s marijuana laws unconstitutional. There were no new marijuana laws in place, and so, in March of 1972, marijuana was effectively legalized in Michigan for about three weeks.



John Sinclair, “Michigan’s hippie king,” walked out of Jackson’s State Prison of Southern Michigan on Dec. 13, 1971 after serving two-and-a-half years of what might have been a 10-year prison sentence for marijuana possession.

Surrounded by a cheering crowd, a television reporter quizzed Sinclair as he embraced family and friends outside of the prison gate.

“After all of the trouble you’ve gone through Mr. Sinclair, how do you feel about marijuana? Do you still feel…”

“I wanna smoke some joints, man!” Sinclair interrupted.


Jon Lennon even recorded a song about it.